Hermida, A. (2016). Telleveryone: Why we share & why it matters. Anchor Canada.
Communication methods today scarcely resemble methods utilized even at the turn of the millennium. If one wishes to say hello to a loved one, look at a picture of a sandwich, or diagnose a disease – all that is required is to pick up a phone. The Internet, a now globally ubiquitous tool, connects communities, the community members, and their information all within an instant. Tell Everyone Why We Share & Why It Matters, a book by Alfred Hermida, explores the nuances of how information is created, disseminated, and curated on the Internet. Specifically, it covers how social media changes the landscape of how communities form and interconnect to one another. His research on these paradigms lends insight into how digital communication impacts information professionals, the communities they serve, and how the continuing evolution of digital communication influences society on a holistic scale.
Hermida introduces the notions of communication changes by first exploring information seeking behavior prior to the technology revolution. He highlights that when news, whether global, national, or local, was previously consumed it was done by reading the daily paper, gathering around the television set after dinner, or word of mouth. These channels for discourse and consumption are likened to an hourglass, where information was filtered through editorial bottlenecks managed by professionals who chose what they believed to be the most important news. Then they packaged these narratives to fit their organization’s interests for disbursement (Hermida, 2016). The notion of journalists and broadcasting networks as the gatekeeper of information has turned upside down as we – everyday people – now have the resources and technology to choose what information we seek, where it is dispersed, and how it is consumed by whomever we like. Bates (2017) supports this approach of information sharing by stating, “Often, in the end, the new technologies offer speed and ease of use, while otherwise replicating previous social structures and interactions” (p. 2078).
This current model of information sharing behavior opens portals that allow individuals to strengthen and create communal ties, both old and new. By creating exchanges of information between one another, whether it is emailing links to resources, sending a text with a recommendation, or using application domain specific interactions like subtweeting someone in a Twitter thread, our society has created a contemporary exchange of social goods that Hermida (2016) describes as, “…the basis of connections common values, and shared understandings that bind communities and engender trust” (p. 34). The idea of communities becoming more bonded through exchanges with its members resembles the Johnson Model of information seeking. Case & Given (2016) describe, the Johnson Model emphasizes that there is a strong preference for information seekers to obtain knowledge directly from other people. Johnson advocated this idea as he concluded that accessibility wins out over authoritativeness. While this practice of information seeking and sharing does foster community bonds, Hermida also cautions that it enables the digital environment to create echo chambers, rumors, and misinformation.
Even prior to the rise of social media there has always been a delicate balance of pushing out news as soon as possible and verifying all the facts and information prior to the distribution. However, now that it seems like any government official, news outlet, or digital bystander can post unverified news directly to continuous online social feeds the line between what’s true and what seems true because of how quickly it is re-tweeted, starts to blur. In lieu of an authority it often appears that volume and repetition reinforces validity. Hermida (2016) attests that this behavior emerges when people try to fill in the gaps of information themselves when situations are ambiguous or communities detect that whole truths are not presented. However, he also argues that while these information practices can result in misinformation oftentimes it can act as a beacon of truth and hope. This is most directly reflected during times of stress and uprisings. Within the past decade there has been a trend of everyday citizens using their phones to capture and upload videos of protests and riots, utilizing their Twitter accounts or blogs to report first hand what is happening in their community, even live-streaming encounters with law enforcement or antagonists. This type of almost gonzo-like community journalism cuts both ways. And depending on the party it can either aid or counteract the potential of fake news being fed to citizens through corrupt politicians or broadcasting networks who have biased incentives to present a story from a certain angle.
All of these information-seeking behaviors directly impact the framework for how librarians and information professionals move throughout their field and present information to their communities. Bates (2017) addresses this by stating, “Indeed, the entire discipline of information sciences has, in one sense, been the story of the successive absorption of a long series of IT innovations, followed, in each case, by research on the impacts of those innovations, and efforts to improve access to information through optimal design of those innovations.” (p. 2078). As highlighted previously, community members are most likely to get their information digitally and gather it from those within their own social circles. Librarians have the duty to guide community members through the digital environment to discover the information they seek while ensuring it is both correct and available to them through this information structure. This includes teaching people how to spot misinformation and how to verify facts before spreading information. Hermida advocates fostering these practices by teaching people how to detect the language of truth (punctuation, journalistic clichés, expletives), piecing together digital breadcrumbs to put together the truth, and stepping back from the nugget of information being presented to look at the bigger picture of the situation. By integrating these practices within library services, not only can information professionals teach digital responsibility while assisting people in gathering their information, they can also demonstrate this information behavior themselves. The American Library Association (2014) reports that 93% of major libraries have social media accounts and 60% have their own smartphone applications. This indicates that these entities are evolving with their communities so they can communicate information in a way that will reach them quickly and in a manner they anticipate. This is especially important at present as the current and new generations of the population expect important information to find them through digital means (Hermida, 2016).
Our society has continuously reshaped and redefined the dimensions in which information is created and shared with one another. In the center of these changes are the community members and community centers, such as libraries, which must learn to adapt and thrive given these changes to continue to connect people to information. By embracing these changes and learning to use new information seeking behavior to our benefit we can continue to evolve as both information providers and community members.
References
American Library Association. (2014, April 14). Social Networking. American Library Association. https://www.ala.org/news/state-americas-libraries-report-2014/social-networking
Bates, M. J. (2017). Information behavior. In M. Levine-Clark & J. D. McDonald (Ed.), Encyclopedia of library and information sciences (4th ed., pp. 2074-2085). CRC Press.
Case, D. O., & Given, L. M. (2016). Looking for information : A survey of research on information seeking, needs, and behavior. Emerald Publishing Limited.